Alloy



Flo hrawing.

Es mm or sons, rmnsvnvs n, assien'oaro The partners conrsur, a 'conro t 7 sperm" more or new roan.v

' name.

To aZl'wlwm-z't may concern: I

f Be it own that l, (humans Dm'rz a citi zen of the United States, and resident of York, county of York, State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvementin- Alloys, otwhiclptheiollowing is aspecific'ati'on. i

The object of -my invention is to provide anew alloy comprised essentially of the precious metals platinum, palladium and gold, and more particularly for the purpose of providing a workable alloy having all of the appearance and advantages as to hardness of an iridium-platinum alloy and which ima 'PIQ ed workable qualities make it superior for purposes of jewelry and the other fine arts, and also for hypodermic needles and other articles of manufacture in commerce.

'bine Pure platinum is not suitable foruse in jewelry and those articles Where it would-be subjected "to" considerable wear and consequently it has been thepractice to alloy the platinum with iridium to the extent of ten per cent (10%) or more of the whole. very hi h cost of iridium necessarily makes The the irid um-platinum alloy an ex ensive one and, therefor-git is one ofthe ob3ects of my invention to provide'analloy which may not only have the advantageous qualities of the iridium-platinum alloy but be superior to it in other particulars. llt is known that platinum-iridium alloys have a tendency to scale in use when made of castings, whereas in my improved alloy this tendency is entirely eliminated.

In the production of my new and prec ous metal alloy, I employ platinum, pa ladium and gold in such proportions that the compercentages of gold and palladium are greatly less than'the percentage of plat num, the-total quantity of the gold and palladium together not exceeding thirty per cent (30%) of the :whole alloy, the proportions being such 'thatthealloy combines hardness and ductilityl lathe preferred proportions conthe gold and pa adium content together approxiwhole, thus providing approximately eightyuals-fifteenper cent (15%) of the five er cent of platinum. l have also ound that the secific alloy comprising eighty-four and oner per cent (Sa of platinum, eight percent 8%) of palla diam, and seven and oneall per cent Appflication filed December M, 1920. Serial Ho.-480,780. i v

alloy equivalent in hardness was fifteen per cent (15%) iridium-platinum alloy,and

considering the high cost of; iridium (which is many times that of gold and platinum) "is alloyed with ninety per cent of platinum, the resulting alloy having increased hardness over nevertheless, brittle an consequently becomes nori-worka'ble for uses in the iindus-v trial arts; in fact, I have found that the increase of gold above five per cent (5%) with platinum alone always roduoes brittleness as well as hardness an for that reason only a limited use of gold is possible in an alloy with platinum where these two metals alone are employed to provide a sufficient hardening of platinum to make it suit able for industrial arts. l have also found thatwhen' palladium is employed in association with the gold in the alloy with platinum, that the brittleness above referred to may-beeliminated, thus an alloy containing seven (7 per cent of gold,'seven. (7) to eight (8) eight-five (85) per cent of platinum wi latinum alone is,

per cent of palladium, and approximatelyl produce arelatively hard homogeneous. a v-' loy having ductile qualities, the hardness being more pronounced than a ten per cent (10%) iridium-platinum alloy. As the cost of palladium and platinum are a proximately, the same, it is manifest that t e substitut1on of part of the platinum by the palladium has not increased the cost over the platinum-gold alloy, but has provided a greatly improved presence of the'pal adium largely governs the degree of ductility and operates to enable relatively large. percentages of gold to be employed without danger of produc brittleness in the resulting alloy. Thus, 3 have found that as high as twenty (20) per cent of gold may be employed with the platinum, rovided a corresponding percentage of palladium be added to reventthe brittleness which otherwise won d occur and as this large per cent of gold at a cost greatly less than the cost of the corresponding amount of:

guality of alloy. The;

(7 76) of gold provides veryfine workable platinum or palladiummaterially lowers the 330 inum alloy having the necessary hard qualities. As a further advantage in the employing of palladium as a substitute for a portion of the platinum in my improved alloy, I would point out that palladium has a very much larger bulk for wei ht than platinum or gold and consequent y it provides a greater bulk to the alloy than what would be found in a gold-platinum or iridium-platinum al'loy. This increased bulk .will reduce the cost of articles of manufacture in that a lesser Weight of the alloy will enable the making of any particular article, in which bulk governs a material part of the cost. Furthermore, the use of palladium which is a white metal in place of a part of the old gives to the alloy a color quality whic more nearly resembles pure platinum or iridium-platinum. These metals employed in the alloy insure a non-tarnishing quality and moreover the alloy is of a composition that, aside from making it more Workable either under heat or cold, is more easily soldered than platinum or iridium-platinum. It is also possible to form better castings from my improved alloy than is possible with either gold-platinum or iridium-platinum alloys.

It will be understood that my inventionconstitutes an alloy of the three metals platinum, gold and palladium, forming a homogeneous alloy having hardness coupled with ductility and in which the gold may vary from seven per cent (7%) to approximately twent per cent (20%) of the whole, and the palla ium vary approximately from seven per cent (7 to ten per cent (10%) of the Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to ters Patent, is

l. A metal alloy combining hardness and ductility, composed of platinum, gold and palladium, in which the gold content is seven per cent (7%) to approximately twenty per cent (20%) of the whole, and the palladium content is seven and one-half per secure by Let- .cent (7.5%) to approximately ten percent (10%) of the Whole.

2. A metal alloy combining hardness and ductility composed of platinum, gold and palladium, in which the platinum is approximately eight-five per cent (85%), the palladium approximately eight per cent (8%), and the gold approxlmately seven per cent (7%) respectively of the whole.

3. A metal alloy combining hardness and ductility, composed of platinum, gold and palladium, in which the platinum equals approximately from eighty (80) to eighty-five (85) per cent of the whole, and the pal-' ladium and gold are present in approximately equal proportions.

4. A metal alloy combining hardness and ductility, composed of platinum, gold and palladium, in which the gold is a proximately seven and one-half per cent 7%%) of the whole, the palladium is in excess of the gold, and the platinum is in excess of approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the whole, a

In testimony of which invention, I hereunto set my hand.

CHARLES DIETZ. 

